hat a nice place fi live,
sweet Jamdown/the only
problem is, dollars nah run.” These lyrics from the popular Tony Rebel song
‘Sweet Jamdown’ were recorded in
1993, but for many Jamaicans, they still
ring true 18 years later. As a result, few
were really surprised when the 2010
Jamaica National Youth Survey (JNYS)
revealed that over half the country’s
youth - a staggering 60% - thought they
would be better off living overseas. The
consensus among young people from
various walks of life is that Jamaica lacks
significant opportunities for them to
make good lives for themselves.
The survey was conducted among
5,426 young people between the ages
of 15-24. One part of the survey dealt
with young resident Jamaicans attached
to households. More than 50% of the
young people interviewed indicated
that they would prefer to live in the
United States, England or Canada. The
second phase of the survey focused on
young persons living and working on
the streets. An even greater number
of these participants believed migration
was their only option for better lives,
with over 80% indicating a preference
for United States and England, while
Canada placed third. Only about 29% of
youth attached to households thought
their lives would improve if they moved
to another Caribbean island.
Samuel Coates, President of the Young
Entrepreneurs Association (YEA),
pointed out that there is a certain
level of ignorance about living abroad

More than 50% of the young
people interviewed indicated
that they would prefer to live
in the United States, England
or Canada.
and how things work in the countries
named. However, he agreed that local opportunities are limited to some
extent, especially when it comes to
finding employment. He stated that
entrepreneurship is the key to creating the opportunities young people
feel they are currently lacking, but too
has its challenges. “For those who are
entrepreneurial-minded, it is difficult to
get financing from various institutions
and there aren’t any venture capitalists
around,” he said.
The CEO of Coates Logistics explained
that prospects do exist for those young
people who are prepared to take advantage of them. He noted that generally, there is interest among young

people in creating opportunities for
themselves, but many lack the requisite
discipline to make their business ideas
work. “Sometimes they might start a
business and as they make some money, they buy a Lexus or a Benz instead
of reinvesting in the company,” he said.
He also added that many also lack the
technical skills to gain and keep jobs.
The JNYS findings certainly support
this. The survey revealed that less than
a third of the youth polled received
some form of job training and more
than half had not passed any form of
examinations: 14% passed one to three
GCE O’ Level, CXC or AEB subjects,
11% passed CXC basic, JHSC or SSC
subjects, while 11% had four or more
GCE OLevel, CXC or AEB subjects.
Less than five percent of youths had
passed higher examinations.

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business
lounge

exodus

jamaican youth look for opportunities abroad
For these young people, it is especially
critical to build their capacity through
education or vocational skills training, Coates said. There are numerous
opportunities to attain these qualifications, including the HEART Trust/NTA,
which offers various levels of training
and assessment in several areas such
as food preparation, dressmaking and
design and cosmetology. The organization also has an Entrepreneurial Skills
Development Unit, which seeks to develop a culture of business ownership
throughout its programmes.
There are also various social intervention programmes that provide remedial
education and skills training for participants. Coates pointed to the Youth
Upliftment Through Employment
(Y.U.T.E.) initiative undertaken by The
Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica
(PSOJ), which provides training, mentorship, employment and entrepreneurial opportunities for young people
from depressed communities.
“There are opportunities out there, but
people are not making use of them,”
Coates stated. He advised young people to accept the jobs that are available,
even if they are not directly linked to
their goals. This will help them to gain
invaluable work experience which will
be beneficial later on. For those who
want to start businesses, he recommended focusing on filling a need, not
just starting a business for business’
sake. He also advised that young people start businesses together, which will
give them more human and financial re-

There are also various social intervention programmes that
provide remedial education and
skills training for participants.
Coates pointed to the Youth Upliftment Through Employment
(Y.U.T.E.) initiative undertaken by
The Private Sector Organisation
of Jamaica (PSOJ), which provides
training, mentorship, employment
and entrepreneurial opportunities
for young people from depressed
communities.

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sources. “This way you are creating a
management team that you don’t have
to pay for,” he said. “It is also critical
to get support and mentorship to help
maintain a long term vision, not just to
‘get rich quick’.”
Look out for Part 2 in
next week’s Your Money!
yourmoney ezine

insights
by
Tracey-Ann
Wisdom

T

Reinventing
Your Brand

he maxim ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ is the hallmark
of entrepreneurship as new businesses
are created to fill the gaps identified in
the market. What many entrepreneurs
don’t readily realize, however, is how
much it takes to keep a business afloat
after this initial burst of creative genius.
In addition to quality products and services, the capacity for reinvention is a
necessary component of business success – and not just small businesses, either. As many large companies crash and
burn in this tight economy, we see just
how important it is to not only broaden
your business horizons but to do it right.
Every year, the website 24/7 Wall
Street compiles a list of companies that
will fail in the short term. Last year, the
site was spot-on with its predictions for
major American brands T-Mobile and
Blockbuster, which have both been acquired by direct competitors AT&T and
Dish Network. Among the companies
expected to buckle this year are Nokia,
Sony Ericsson, Sony Pictures, Soap Opera Digest and MySpace.
Nokia
If anyone had mentioned five years ago
that the venerable Finnish brand would
be on the brink of extinction, that person would have been laughed out of the
room. The products were top-quality
and the company seemed fully capable
of keeping up with the latest trends in
technology. Until the smartphone boom,
that is. Nokia has been steamrolled by
the Apple iPhone and Google Android,
losing virtually its entire market share in
the United States. The Microsoft part-

As many large companies crash
and burn in this tight economy, we see just how important
it is to not only broaden your
business horizons but to do it
right.
nership has not helped either and both
companies have suffered on the stock
markets.
Sony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson hasn’t really turned up for
the vital smartphone race. According to
24/7 Wall Street, “[sales] of Sony Ericsson phones were originally helped by the
popularity of other Sony portable devices like the Walkman, [but its] product
development lagged behind Apple and
Research In Motion (RIM) which dominated the high-end smartphone industry

early.” Since being left in the blocks, the
company has seen unit sales plummet
from 97 million in 2008 to 43 million last
year. Clearly, reinvention was needed a
long time ago and only sheer genius will
be able to rescue this brand.
Sony Pictures
Sony is just in trouble all around as so far
this year, this side of its operations has
been rattled by the Japan earthquake
and tsunami disaster and the hacking of
its PlayStation Network. In the lucrative ‘motion gaming’ industry, Sony’s
PlayStation Move is being beaten by
Microsoft Xbox Kinect and Nintendo’s
Wii, which have practically cornered the
market. The only valuable asset it owns
is Columbia Tri-Star, which it acquired
for US$3.4 billion in 1989. However,
the studio has not produced any major
blockbusters in a while.

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insights

Reinventing
Your Brand
Soap Opera Digest
Soap fans have been in a lather with the
recent cancellation of long-running dramas ‘One Life to Live’ and ‘All My Children’. But this is just one of the magazine’s problems - its place as the go-to
guide for viewers has been usurped by
blogs and fan sites. In 2000, the magazine’s circulation was over 1.1 million
readers. By 2005, it fell below 500,000,
where it has remained. The magazine’s
best bet is to go completely digital and
become the go-to site for official, exclusive information.
MySpace
The “place for friends” has been poleaxed by Facebook, running on fumes
since mid-2008. Admittedly, MySpace
has revamped its image and purpose
in an attempt to remain competitive,
focusing on entertainment and celebrities. However, this has failed. According
to 24/7 Wall Street, MySpace’s parent
company, News Corp, has hinted that it
will close the site if it does not find a
buyer.
In order to avoid these pitfalls, it is necessary to always keep your company
on the cutting edge in terms of the
products and services offered. This involves paying close attention to market
trends, incorporating new technology
where appropriate and knowing when
you need to tweak your image. If you
feel your company may need a shot of
adrenaline, here are three key principles
to follow:
Innovate: Innovation doesn’t stop
once your company starts; it must remain an on-going process. For instance,

Differentiate: Target used to be
just like any of the other big discount
stores in America, but in recent years, it
has separated itself from the pack by offering high-end, fashion-forward products at low prices. The stores feature
products by celebrity designers such
as Isaac Mizrahi, Stella McCartney, Zac
Posen and Thakoon.

In addition to quality products
and services, the capacity for
reinvention is a necessary component of business success –
and not just small businesses,
either.

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in 2009, automakers Hyundai responded to the economic crisis with two innovative assurance programmes, which
allowed customers to return the vehicles they purchased that year if they
lost their jobs and guaranteed US$1.49
per gallon gasoline to consumers who
purchased vehicles during the summer.
Broaden appeal: Apple was
once known for high prices and hard-tomanipulate systems and software, which
excluded the majority of the market.
However, it launched the user-friendly
iMac in 1998 and in 2001, introduced
the world to the iPod and iTunes store.
Since then, Apple has become the market leader for cutting edge, easy-to-use
technology, which allows it to tap into
new segments of the market.
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Start
Ups
Read. Believe. Succeed.

Small Business Banking

Brought to you by:

start
ups
by
Tracey-Ann
Wisdom

I

Dave Watson
making Tred Laboratories the best in the business
especially for the software development
side of the business. Watson added that
they would also like to further drive the
service department to match up with
sales.

t is often said that the true measure of a man is found in how he
rises after a fall, and by this scale,
Dave Watson, Managing Director of
Tred Laboratories, is destined for great
things. He was forced to watch his initial
dream of building planes crumble due to
financial constraints and failing physics at
the CSEC (Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate) level, but he did not
give up on himself. Instead, he turned to
his second love, information technology,
and has made a name for himself in that
industry.
Watson earned his stripes by working
in several areas of IT before starting his
own business. He was IT manager at
Bluedot Contact Centre and later, group
IT manager for Matate Holdings Limited.
His responsibilities included procurement, implementation and management
of IT equipment and infrastructure.
Watson co-founded Tred Laboratories
with three friends in 2007. The company
offers a range of services including data
recovery, software development, system
administration, IT infrastructure design
and remote data backup. There are numerous IT operations across Jamaica, so
the young company has to ensure that
it stands out. It certainly helps that Tred
Labs is the only professional data recovery company on the island. “We pride
ourselves on being the best at what we
do and we only need to get in the door
to prove it,” Watson stated. Tred Labs
has indeed ‘proven it’, amassing a diverse clientele including musicians and
producers, students, government agencies, loan companies and manufacturers.

Going forward, Watson is focused on
adding to Tred Labs’ customer base. The
company has created CASH EAGLE, a
software programme for loan companies, as well as a school management
package. Plans are also in place to host a
small business seminar to teach the principals about the benefits of outsourcing.
“We want companies to let us manage
their IT needs so that they can concentrate on the other important aspects of
their business,” he said.

Dave Watson,
Managing Director of Tred Laboratories

“We pride ourselves on being
the best at what we do and we
only need to get in the door to
prove it,”

Watson has a regional and international
vision for the company and has already
embarked on securing partnerships with
major players in the IT landscape. In five
years, “Our software department will
have grown eventually to be a global
player and we intend to have several IP
software that will be packaged and offered over the counter,” he stated.

As with most other startups, things have
not always run smoothly for Watson
and his team. “Our greatest problem
was capital. Initially, it stifled our growth
because we could not go for those big
deals or properly take care of our clients, so we embarked on an aggressive
campaign to get credit from suppliers
and a line of credit from our banks. We
also had to shorten our credit period
and take deposits,” he explained. There
are other challenges, such as marketing,
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